The state and cultural production

Honours Coordinator and Lecturer in American Studies, United States Studies Centre

by Tricia Jenkins, Aaron Nyerges and Rodney Taveira

In late 2014, a film starring Seth Rogen and James Franco found itself at the center of a political and corporate crisis. The film, entitled The Interview, featured the duo as tabloid journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea. Although scripted as a juvenile, comedic bromance, the North Korean government was infuriated by the premise and publically demanded that Sony cease production of the film, which it considered an act of war. When Sony refused to pull the project, the company then fell victim to one of the largest corporate hacks in history, as a group called The Guardians of the Peace released hundreds of thousands of the company's emails and private documents, took over Sony-related Twitter accounts, and threatened additional attacks, styled after September 11, 2001, on any theater debuting The Interview on its screens.

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Aaron Nyerges is a Lecturer in American Studies at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He holds a PhD in English from the University of Sydney and a BA from the State University of New York. His articles have appeared in Textual Practice, Sound Studies, the Australasian Journal of American Studies, and the Journal of Popular Culture.

Honours Coordinator and Lecturer in American Studies, United States Studies Centre

Rodney Taveira was awarded his PhD in English from the University of Sydney in 2010 and has published on contemporary American fiction, book reviews, and television, and the interrelation of cinema, photography, painting, and literature. His areas of expertise include American literature, American and European film (silent era to present), US television, comedy in the US, US popular culture, and queer and sexuality studies.